Hebrew Bible: Habakkuk

Habakkuk is one of the Bible's 12 Minor Prophets, who only have short books (in contrast to the Major Prophets, who have longer books). You've probably never heard of him. Habakkuk has a short chat with God about suffering and evil.

HABAKKUK: 'O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralysed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.'

God responds by explaining that he's working on it: he's going to send Chaldeans (Babylonians) to conquer Israel as punishment:

GOD: "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!"

Habakkuk finds this answer unsatisfying; why is a supposedly good God using Babylonians to bring about a net increase in evil? If they are being used by God, do they Babylonians get off scot free for what they've done?

HABAKKUK: "O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgement, and you have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?... Is he [Babylon] then to keep on mercilessly killing nations forever?"

God explains that he will get round to punishing the Babylonians sometime in the future, and, in the meantime, people should stop asking awkward questions.

GOD: "If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Moreover, wealth is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples...
Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own...
Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house...
Woe to him who builds a town with blood...
But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Habakkuk decides to praise God and hope that he won't get carried away in anger:

HABAKKUK: "O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.
His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low
His were the everlasting ways.

You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us."